Thing #23 HOORAY, I'm finally done!

Wow, what an experience! I would like to say my brain is bursting with unfathomable technological knowledge, but alas, I would be lying. However, I can say that I learned about many things I didn't even realize existed. My favorite "things" are the image generator and Youtube. Those were interactive and fun. Sitting at the computer for long periods of time is not my idea of having fun , so many of the " things" did not appeal to me. I like and need to be more active. I enjoy talking to people in person and reading material I can actually hold in my hands. I am grateful to have participated in "23 Things" because it made me aware of the new technology even if I couldn't quite grasp all of it. I think a program with less things to learn about would be better....fewer things to learn about over a period of time. I think I would retain more of what I learned in smaller doses.
I want to say "thank you" to my coworkers and my family for their assistance and support.

Thing #22 Audiobooks

I used Project Gutenberg to search for some of my favorite authors and books. I was unable to find anything by Stephen King, James Patterson or Tess Gerritsen. There doesn't seem to be any modern day authors available at this site. I was able to find many classic authors like Mark Twain, Jane Austen, H. G. Wells and Shelley (Frankenstein). I also found one of my favorites by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. So, if you are into the classics Project Gutenberg seems to be the place to go.

Thing #21 Podcasts

I went to the Yahoo search and listened to a little James Brown and Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson...it was music to my ears.

Thing #20 YOUTUBE

Youtube is a fun place to find old and new videos & commercials from your favorite old TV shows or your current favorites. One my favorite shows was I Love Lucy, especially the show with Ethel and Lucy working on the chocolate candy assembly line. This could be an interesting instruction tool...maybe demonstrating story times.

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Award Winners

I explored Craigslist which is the Web 2.0 award winner for classifieds and directories. This site is an excellent source to search for jobs, housing, personals, etc. in the USA and foreign countries. People sell merchandise on this site by placing an ad with a description of the item and sometimes a picture, and their email address. Jobs from every field are advertised on Craigslist even a Super duper pooper scooper!

Thing #18

I tried Google Docs. I wrote a couple sentences and made some revisions like changing the font style and size, changing the margins, using bold and italics. Google Docs is very similar to other word processors like Word and Zoho.

Thing #17 Sandbox

Well....I was buried in the sand for some time. I could not figure out how to add my blog to the favorite page, but finally it is done (hope it is still there). If it were not for assistance from my husband, my head would still be buried in the sand! I made a comment about one of my favorite TV shows, "Dexter".

Thing #16 WIKI

A wiki seems to be an impersonal way of expressing an opinion. Just like everyone has an opinion, so it seems that eveyone has a wiki or is thinking of creating one. Just how dependable is the information in a wiki if anyone can change it anytime? The Book lovers wiki was interesting because you can share book reviews, but, again I like to actually talk to people about books I have read.

Thing #15 Library 2.0

For me, a library will always be a place meet & gather, not just to surf the Web, but to find that perfect book to read ( to actually hold it in my hands) and curl up in that cozy spot or to read your child into dreamland. My hope is that books will always be a concrete thing and not become only a virtual thing. I think balance is a good thing.
Viewing "The Machine Is Us/ing Us" was an exercise in futility for me because I did not understand it. But here is my view on the future of libraries & all this emerging technology. To me all of this is exciting & scary (mostly scary!) because everything changes so rapidly. I feel that I and many other people are being left behind. Not so much myself because I have access to this learning tool (23 Things) and opted to take advantage of it. I understand that this is the future of libraries and it is the best way to go, so stepping up to the task of "23 Things" is a good thing. Back to the many others being left behind......surely you know that Web 2.0 is not available for everyone! Not all libraries/school systems have access to funds to make this "machine" available to their community. So then books are still very valuable when access to a computer is not possible.
I do feel fortunate to have "23 Things" as part of my job, but , it is a difficult task for someone like myself who frequently resists assimilation into the world of technology. Also, it is harder for Circulation staff to work on "23 Things" because when we are off the desk there is still shelving, shelfreading, reports, etc. and scheduling time to work on "23 Things" becomes yet another task to deal with. It seems as soon as I learn a "techie" thing, it changes or something new takes its place at a daunting rate of rapidity. It seems that one cannot learn fast enough.......but onward and upward, ain't no half stepping, feet don't fail me now, and so on and so on.

Thing #14

TECHNO..WHAT...ii?

Technorati seems to be a lot of blogs searching for blogs. I felt as though I was drowning in an ocean of blogs.....too much stuff! The favorite blogs seem to be the technical blogs which makes sense because it seems that technical minded people would use these blogs as some sort of information exchange. Can one really count on this information to be accurate? I did a key word search using diabetes and found a blog called DiabetesDaily. I read a few of the blogs which just seemed to some venting of feelings, some requests for advice, and just a lot of STUFF....

Thing #13

I listened and read tutorials for tagging and del.icio.us. I understand how important del.icio.us would be in research and in any other environment where sharing information is essential, but personally, I have no use for it. At the information desk, del.icio.us would be a useful tool for sharing useful sites.